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Essential oils are popular for their mesmerizing aroma and healing properties which make them alluring to various health care centers, aromatherapy centers, and spas. These oils are good for skin as they improve the skin texture, tackle acne, and enhance the glow of the skin. Some other benefits include their commercial perfumery value, owing to their enchanting aroma. You can use these Natural Oils as per your purpose, but be careful with the purity percentage inclusive of aroma and other contents. With this write-up, we give you a clear picture of the Essential Oils, their types, and availability in the market.

What is Essential Oil?

It is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid that consists of volatile aroma compounds. Scientifically, Essential Oils are also known as ethereal oil, aetherolea, or simply volatile oil. This oil has earned the name “essential” for its distinctive scent or basically “the essence” derived from the plant. Though, these oils are known to have various medicinal properties, they do not fall in the category of culinary, medical, or pharmacological, considering purpose of their use.

Source

It is extracted from aromatic plant by following various processing methods, the most common of which is steam distillation process.

Extraction

Pure Essential Oils can be extracted by following steam distillation process. There are other processes as well which is inclusive of solvent extraction or expression. There are variety extracted from plants of lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, ylang-ylang, and jasmine through steam distillation process. Various parts of these plants such as leaves, root, stem, peel, wood, bark, or seed are used as a raw material for extraction process. Most of the essential oils can be distilled in single distillation process, except from ylang-ylang (Cananga odorata), which takes up to twenty two hours to end through one fractional distillation. The process involves heated water from which the steam passes through the raw materials, thereby vaporizing the volatile compound. Herein, the vapor passes through a coil, wherein they get condensed to liquid, and accumulates in the receiving vessel. It is deeply concentrated due which they are very potent. The water which left from the distillation process is also sold in the market for their fragrance properties, also known as hydro sols. Some of these hydro sols are lavender water, rose water, orange blossom water, Clary sage, lemon balm, and so on. These hydro sols are finding immense usage in cosmetic industry.

Application

It is popular in cosmetic industry, toiletry Industry, Aromatherapy Centers, Spas, and other Health Care Institutions. In case of cosmetics, it is suggested that it used should be of low concentration. Thus, carrier oil is preferred to dilute these oils when applied on skin. Essential Oils are used in cosmetics, perfumes, soaps, flavoring food, bath oils, candles, incense sticks, drinks, and a variety of household cleaning products. Due to believe of curative properties in Essential Oils, these are used for massage and other forms of external consumption.